Receiving social security payments while working a part time job

08/05/2012| IslamWeb

Question

my question is i currenlty recive social security payments of about 250 every two weeks which my mum take it all for the house and i work a part time job with a muslim brother where i receive cash money and i want to tell the governemnt how much i earn but if i do the person i work with will be in trouble because he only pays cash money and at the same time my mother tells me its oright what im doing because my brother sits at home and dosent work and dosent want to recive any social seurity money and dosent put eny money into the house ,so what im asking is it permissble to keep on working this job that pays cash money because if i tell th scoail security they will get the person i work for in trouble and i am still elligible to receive some money from them while i work because i receice little amoutn of money from work.and also i am leaving the country for good in 2 months so i will not get enymore benfits after that

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.
If among the conditions for being eligible for the social security is that you should not work or have an income other than the social security, then this is not permissible for you; in which case, you are obligated to notify the authority that provides you with the social security so that they will stop the payments for you or that they may give it to you while knowing your circumstances. Moreover, if it is possible to inform them about your work and salary without mentioning the person for whom you work – if mentioning that will cause him an illegitimate harm – then this is also another solution.
In any case, the fact that your brother neither takes the social security nor works does not make it permissible for you to take more than your right or that you contravene the terms and conditions of the contract with the social security authority.

Allah Knows best.

Fatwa answered by: The Fatwa Center at Islamweb